


No Greater Gift

by schmulte



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Family Fluff, One Shot, Post Hidden World, also a touch of light angst, chief hiccup, dadcup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 10:59:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18690148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schmulte/pseuds/schmulte
Summary: Hiccup has a talk with Zephyr that reminds him of one he had with his father





	No Greater Gift

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I literally paused my stream of HTTY3 to write this and it took about 10 minutes and as we know, I don't proofread, so please accept this quickly thrown together one shot. I hope you like cinematic parallels

Zephyr was supposed to be sleeping. She knew this. The five year old had been tucked gently into bed hours ago by her parents with her dragon toy and the candles had been blown out. She was supposed to be sleeping. But the child couldn't help that she was thirsty, now could she? And she simply couldn't go back to sleep without a tall glass of yak's milk. It was just unthinkable. So quiet as a mouse, the little girl crept from her bed and walked on tip-toes towards the stairs of her home. There was snoring coming from her parent's room- her mother had always been a loud snorer, even if she wouldn't admit it-and Zephyr grinned to herself, knowing her midnight trip to the kitchen would go uninterrupted. 

But just as her toes hit the top step of the stairs, the little girl froze. There was a noise coming from the fireplace below, and she could see shaking cloaked shoulders. Her father was crying. It frightened her, seeing the strong Chief she knew be so vulnerable. Sure, maybe he could be a bit of a cry baby sometimes- the Haddocks all tried to collectively forget the incident at Zephyr's birthday party-but that had only been a tear or two, and it was mostly happy crying. This was...something different. A side of her father she had never seen before. 

She peeked over the railing and watched him in his chair. He was holding something red, a piece of fabric with a skull painted on it. It looked like the ones from the blueprints her father kept in his study. It must have been a part of Toothless's old tail, the one her father had made when he was a boy. She had heard the stories of what life was like when there were dragons. Some of her questions went unanswered, they were about things that had to wait until Zephyr was older. But she knew who Toothless was and that he was her daddy's best friend, and he had to go away. She didn't know why. That had to wait until she was older too. 

The next stair creaked beneath her and the little girl winced as her father turned towards the noise. His eyes were shiny and his cheeks were a little wet, but he wiped at his face and managed a small, sad smile for his daughter. 

"Zephyr? You should be asleep" 

His daughter looked down bashfully and clutched her deadly nadder plush close to her chest. 

"I was thirsty." 

Hiccup's smile widened a little and he beckoned her closer. 

"C'mere." 

Zephyr raced to set down the toy and ran over to her father. She felt herself being picked up by his large hands and was settled nicely into his lap, facing the fire. Hiccup picked up a poker and placed it in his daughter's hands with his over top and let the little girl poke the fire. She giggled a little at the activity. But seeing the now discarded fabric on the floor brought her back to what she saw, and she looked up at her father with large, concerned blue eyes. 

"Daddy? Why did Toothless leave?" 

Hiccup sighed and set down the poker to wrap his arms around his daughter and place a kiss at the top of her head. 

"Toothless was my best bud," he sighed. He couldn't find the right words to explain to his daughter in a child-friendly manner the exact circumstances of the dragon's departure. But a memory came to him of a similar night many years ago with his father, when he was Zephyr's age. 

"But with love," he continued. "Comes loss. It's part of the deal. Sometimes...sometimes it hurts. But in the end, it's all worth it." 

He shifted the girl to his right knee so he could look her in her awe-struck eyes. He gave that same sad smile and brushed the fiery locks from her face. 

"And there's no greater gift than love." 

Zephyr buried her face in her father's chest and wrapped her arms around his neck. 

"I love you, daddy. And I'm not going anywhere." 

Hiccup had to use all of his willpower not to cry again, he really did. Hearing his daughter say that...oh, it was just too much for the father to express in words. All he could do was wrap his little girl up in his embrace and whisper the familiar words of "there were dragons, when I was a boy" until she fell asleep in his arms. And the next morning when Astrid came downstairs, she found her husband and her daughter wrapped up together in his chair, both with eyes shut and heads filled with dreams of dragons.


End file.
